


Gravity

by orphan_account



Category: BioShock 1 & 2 (Video Games)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Drug Use, F/M, Not Beta Read, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Told through flashbacks and recollections
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:46:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24019987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: /ˈɡravɪti/1. The force that attracts a body towards the centre of the earth, or towards any other physical body having mass.2. Extreme importance; seriousness.An ill-fated love story told through the recollections of someone who escaped back to the surface world.
Relationships: Augustus Sinclair/Original Female Character, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Kudos: 2





	Gravity

The scratch of keys in the lock, the front door opening, a sigh as shoes are kicked off at the door. Mum is home.  
A click of the lock, the outside world doesn’t exist now. Shuffling feet make their way to the kitchen, a light goes on and the kettle is set to boil. Those same shuffling feet then make their way towards my bedroom door. I don’t put the guitar down but I do stop playing. 

“Amelia? What are you doing still up?” Mum yawned.

“I was waiting on you.”

“You’ve got rehearsal tomorrow, you’ll be exhausted.”

“I’ll be okay, I wanted to be sure you got home safe.”

“Well now that I’m home, d’you want a hot chocolate?” 

“Yeah, go on then and I can show you what I’ve spent the last hour or more practicing.”

Mum went back towards the kitchen and I took a deep breath, I had been trying to work up the courage to ask this of mum for a few days now. I wanted to finally know about my dad, I had asked before but talking about him always upset her so I would never ask too many questions.   
When mum returned with the hot chocolates, I noticed the cream and chocolate shavings. It must have been a hard shift, it gave me pause. I almost reconsidered. Mum worked in a rehab center for drug addicts and alcoholics as a therapist. Most cases that ended up in the center she worked at were likely never going to be rehabilitated, they would leave and before a month was up they would be back again. Occasionally a regular would pass away and mum always took it hard.

“You okay sweetheart?” Mum asked.

“Yeah, I just…” I took the cup from her and she sat across from me on the bed. “Bad day?”

“You could say that but most days aren't much better.” She shook her head and smiled, “So what have you been practicing?”

I spent the next half hour showing her what I had learned and a riff I had improvised. After a while longer I set the guitar into the stand and laid down on the bed. This was it, now or never. “Mum… Tell me about Dad?” I asked, timidly.

A sharp inhale told me she hadn’t been expecting that question and then a soft exhale followed. “I never know where to start when you ask about him.”

“Well, um, what did he look like?” 

“He was handsome and by god did he know it.” She chuckled sadly. “He had brown hair, it was always soft despite how much product he would use to keep it in place. You got his eyes, a beautiful shade of hazel.”

Hearing that made me feel a little closer to the man I had never known, to know I had a part of him so visible to me was a comfort. 

“Mum, look I know talking about him isn’t easy for you but I just have so many questions and I’m nearly 15 but I don’t know a single thing about my own dad.” I felt bad for pushing mum like this but I needed to know, I had been needing to know since I turned 12 but I always held back to save upsetting her.   
  


“You’re right, it is hard and it does hurt to talk about him but you deserve to know. I should’ve told you about him years ago but I took advantage of your lack of questions. I’m so sorry." Mum lies down across the bottom of the bed and stares at the ceiling, “What else do you want to know?”  
  


“Just anything you can think of.”  
  


“Okay love, okay.” She chews her lip, “He was a shrewd and savvy businessman, bloody stubborn too but under all that he had a heart of gold, at least for certain people. He was from Panama originally and even though by the time I met him he hadn’t lived there in a long time, he still had the accent. It was this sweet southern drawl that just made him ooze charm. He’d call me ‘doll’ or ‘pretty lil darlin’.  
  


By now I could hear mum fighting back tears just to keep speaking and I was fighting between telling her to stop and begging her to keep talking.  
  


“Where did you two meet?” I asked.  
  


A shaky and almost bitter laugh escaped mum then, “That is… That’s a story I’m really not sure you’d believe. Huh, well I guess let’s start with this, you know the stories about Andrew Ryan?”  
  


“Yeah! Multi-millionaire starts getting all secretive about some big project and then goes and disappears off the face of the earth.” I sat up now, excited to understand how a figure shrouded in such mystery played a part in the story of my mum and dad.  
  


“More or less, now you remember what I told you about my dad?”  
  


“A surgeon. Best of his kind.”  
  


“Once upon his time he was, or at least in the eyes of his daughter.” Mum sighed again, with a resigned tone as if she expected something bad to come from what she was about to say. “Amelia, what I’m going to tell you next, I need you to just hear me out and suspend your disbelief for a bit.”  
  


I laughed awkwardly, “Sure, okay mum.”  
  


“My dad knew Mr. Ryan. I was 21 when he made my dad the offer to live in his new society. He called it Rapture.”

* * *

_New York c.1945_

“Dad! Hey, dad, over here!” I called.  
  


Dad still had his scrubs on, he must have still had patients to see to later on. I held aloft two cups of coffee in plastic cups. It probably wasn’t going to taste all that great but coffee was coffee and given that his shift was far from over yet, I figured he’d appreciate the caffeine boost.  
“Hello sweetheart, how’s your day been?” He asked as he sank into the cafeteria stool.   
  


“Good, really good.” I smiled, “I got that job at the library, I start tomorrow. What about your day?”  
  


“It has been busy and I’ve had a terrible headache the whole day.” He said, “To be honest, I’m tempted to tell our guest not to come tonight.”  
  


“Dad! You can’t, it’s not everyday Andrew Ryan writes to ask if he can discuss a business matter with someone.”  
  


“I know, I know. Of course I won’t cancel.” Dad grimaced as he took a sip of coffee, “This is disgusting.”  
  


“I thought it would be.” I tell him, pushing my cup to the side. “Right well, I’m off to clean up the house a little and start preparing dinner. See you tonight.”

I give him a hug as we make to go our separate ways. Outside the hospital I wave down a cab and head homewards.

  
*

Taking a last chance to glance around the lounge, I breathe a sigh of relief. Everything is ready. Dad arrives at the foot of the stairs, dressed in his Sunday best, just as the doorbell rings. He stands behind me as I open the door and greet the one and only Andrew Ryan.

“Come in, let me take your coat Mr. Ryan.”   
  


“Thank you my dear.” He says, shrugging off his coat and stepping up to shake hands with dad. “Doctor Steinman, a pleasure to meet you.”  
  


“The pleasure is all ours Mr. Ryan.”

We head into the lounge and take a seat, Mr. Ryan wastes no time.

“I’m glad you invited me here but the truth is I have deceived you slightly. The opportunity I come to you with is not that of a business nature but instead a personal one.” He begins, “You see I am gathering the brightest and best to come with me to inhabit a new colony I am building.”  
  


Unable to contain myself, I ask. “Is this something to do with the secret project you are conducting, the same one that the press is so interested in?”  
  


He flashes me with a smile, “So clever. Yes, it is and I can assure you that it is not just the press that is interested in my activities.”  
  


That night he explained how he was tired of living in a world where a man is bound by the petty morals of a society that seeks only to restrict creative minds, scientific advances and business opportunities. Over dinner he outlined his plan to build a society free of those constraints. Where, as he put it, ‘a man was entitled to the sweat of his brow’.  
Then, during desert, he made the offer to dad. “We are a like minded pair, are we not? So I am here to invite you to take your place amongst the first citizens of Rapture. Will you accept?”  
  


“I don’t go anywhere unless the invitation is extended to my daughter as well.”  
  


I was shocked. Though not surprised that my father would insist I came too, a part of me had just assumed I would be invited alongside him. I realised with a pang of annoyance that Mr. Ryan had laid all of this information out before both of us with no intention of having me join him and my father.

After a brief pause, where the man looked to be weighing his options, he turned to me and nodded. “Of course, it goes without saying that your daughter is also invited.”

* * *

“Christ on a bike, is that the time?” Mum started.  
  


I was so engrossed in what she had just told me that I didn’t realise she was preparing to leave until she was making her way to my bedroom door. “Wait, you can’t stop there. I have so many questions.” I blurted out, “I’ve never even heard of this Rapture place? Where is it? Is Andrew Ryan still there? What about my dad?”  
  


“Sweetheart, it’s a very long story and you have to be up in approximately five hours.” She said as she leaned against the wall and suppressed a yawn. “I’ll tell you more tomorrow after you come back from school and then we have the whole weekend for me to tell you the bulk of the story. I promise Amelia, I’ll tell you everything.”  
  


“You can’t expect me to go to school tomorrow with this on my mind, surely?”  
  


“I do. C’mon now, bedtime sweetheart.” Mum pushed herself off the wall and tucked me in, leaning down to give me a kiss on the forehead.  
  


“At least tell me his name?” I asked, suddenly very sleepy now that my head was on the pillow and my body under the covers.  
  


“Sure thing sweetheart. He was called Augustus Sinclair.” She sniffled, then added in a put on southern accent, “Augustus Sinclair Esquire, sport.”  
  


“Night Mum.” I mumbled, “Night dad.”

I was aware, somewhere on the edge of my conscious mind, of mum stifling a sob. “Good night sweetheart. Goodnight to you too Sinclair, love.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I hope you enjoyed this first chapter. I'll be honest this has been a plot bunny in my head for a loooong time and now with Lockdown in place and the Bioshock collection coming to the Nintendo Switch, I figured what the heck!  
> I absolutely adore the Bioshock games and all the characters with in them. I have a particular fondness for Sinclair so this came about. 
> 
> Anyway, I won't promise that this will be updated regularly but I will try not to leave gaps beyond a fortnight. Oh and if anyone should want to volunteer to beta this I would be most appreciative!
> 
> Stay safe and healthy my lovelies and thank you for taking time to read this! x


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